When I spoke to Sandy Liang in September 2022, after she launched her now signature square-toe Mary Jane shoes, she used the word princess 13 times in 15 minutes. It’s a word she used again, with similar frequency, when we discussed her next collection in February 2023. And it was present again in the notes for her Fall 2024 show this weekend in New York.
“The Sandy Liang Fall Winter 2024 collection follows a schoolgirl who grows up to be a princess,” Liang wrote. The girl emerges from the ocean, ties her hair up in a ribbon of salt, gathers her most prized possessions in a star-shaped silver bag, and takes pictures on her phone. “When she turns around, all the way down her back are tiny strands of braids, like bows. Illusions everywhere, on her wrist and on her collar, but she knows who she is. She is special. She is just one girl in a group of girls.”
Liang has built a successful brand by making grown women feel like the princesses of their girlhood dreams. She repeatedly cites Sailor Moon and Polly Pocket as reference points. She adorns her clothes (often pleated, always cute) with bows and rosettes and imagery inspired by the pink stars of childhood planners. And over the past few years, her brand has gone from a niche downtown New York obsession to the stuff of viral TikTok fame.
The girls who love Sandy Liang, of whom I am one, wear their adoration for the brand like a badge of pride. At the show this past Sunday, I wore a powder-blue Sandy skirt with a silhouette yoke construction inspired by Marie Antoinette. When a friend saw me, she said, “You are such a Sandy girl,” and I blushed with the delight of someone who’d just made eye contact with a high school crush.
But what happens when looking young gets old?
Liang’s namesake line is now celebrating its 10th anniversary, and this collection felt notably more grown-up. The princess now looks like she got a nine-to-five. Her wardrobe consists of a modest take on the low-rise trend, with pastel A-line dresses featuring built-in low-slung belt details, tweed miniskirt suit sets with rounded Peter Pan collars, and small leather bowler bags with ribbons she can hold with two hands slipped into white ladylike gloves.
Typically, the concept of getting older is met with melancholia and the grim declaration that it’s time to put away childish things in order to “look your age”—whatever that means. But Liang’s vision of growing up doesn’t make me sad. It isn’t austere; it’s still playful. The women on the runway carry the girls they once were in their shiny star-shaped bags, gray rosette sweatpants, and curly shearling miniskirts. They aren’t having less fun so much as they are simply dressing with the confidence of a princess who has lived long enough to know what she likes. She also probably has royal duties she needs more sleek outfits for.
After the show ended, I lingered for a bit near the runway entrance. At any other New York Fashion Week, attendees would have rushed out the door, but 20 minutes postshow, plenty of Sandy girls were still hanging around. Some must have been dressed by the brand, but most were dressed by themselves in the brand. They were taking photos and complimenting each other and talking about their favorite looks with unrestrained enthusiasm. The scene reminded me of the show notes: “She is special. She is just one girl in a group of girls.”
What Liang has been able to do is fairly unprecedented. She has created a popular brand that has maintained its niche fandom despite outgrowing its IYKYK status. Now, she’s demonstrating she is capable of dressing not just girls, but also the women they will become.
Sandy Liang Fall/Winter 2024
